Tag Archives: Religion

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day 1 Chronicles 16

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Religion or relationship. That was the day that David inaugurated regular worship of praise to God, led by Asaph and his company. 1 Chronicles 16:7 (MSG)

There was a distinct point in time when, for me, “going to church” became “worship.” I was raised going to church. We were there every Sunday. I was a regular attender at Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, Choir, and Sunday mornnig service. It was what my family did. We were religious about going to church, but wasn’t really worship for me.

It was while I was in high school that I entered into a relationship with Jesus. Suddenly, the stale mechanics of going to church took on a whole new dimension. I wasn’t checking something off my to-do list of good intentions. I wasn’t just doing what my parents demanded. I was going to meet with God. I was going to have a heart-to-heart with Jesus, to learn from his message, and to worship the one who gave up his life for me.

One of the things that David understood was the importance of worship. Reading Chronicles, I get the sense that David viewed worship as a way of honoring God who had protected him, anointed him, and saved him. It wasn’t about some religious good-luck charm. David understood that regular worship was part of his relationship with God.

Going to church is a religious good deed. Worshiping God is a relational act of the heart.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and stuckincustoms

 

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Isaiah 29

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Where's Waldo. The Master said: "These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their hearts aren't in it. Because they act like they're worshiping me but don't mean it…. Isaiah 29:13 (MSG)

Sometimes, I step back and try to see a bigger picture. I look at my life and everyone in it like a Where's Waldo book in which everyone I know is walking around on one big opened, panoramic page. I look and see believers who say all the right things and are sure to be seen in the right evangelical circles and settings, but then I listen as they make contemptuous observations about others and pass judgment as if their butts were big enough to occupy the Judgement Seat of Christ. I see the blissfully ignorant. I see hard-hearted standing in their own form of judgmental obstinance. I see the runaway. I see the rebellious. I see the broken, and I see genuine hearted searching.

Looking at the broad mental picture of these different individuals and groups, I remind myself that it was the religious establishment - the good, and upright followers of God that received the lion's share of Jesus' angry rebuke. While it was the sinful, the broken, and the hard hearted who received a generous portion of Jesus' time, attention, love and grace.

Where am I in this big picture? If you look for me, where will you find Tom? Am I with the judgmental religious establishment? Am I found in the picture where I'm most comfortable? Am I found where Jesus would be (and is)?

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and silvery

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Isaiah 23

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Truth offends. For the next seventy years, a king's lifetime, Tyre will be forgotten. At the end of the seventy years, Tyre will stage a comeback, but it will be the comeback of a worn-out whore, as in the song:

   "Take a harp, circle the city,
   unremembered whore.
Sing your old songs, your many old songs.
   Maybe someone will remember." Isaiah 23:15-16 (MSG)

Last night was opening night of the local community theatre show. It was really well received by the audience. Nevertheless, there was one patron who made a comment about being offended by something in the show. No surprise. I've served as the president of the board of directors for our local stage troupe for the past few years. In that capacity, I get to answer the letters and e-mails of offended audience members. There's always a few of them. Interestingly enough, every complaint has come from a good, upstanding religious person.

When I read passages like today's from Isaiah, I wonder how straight-laced religious people with their undies in a bunch make it through God's Message without being offended. Do they take out their exacto knives and cut out the offensive passages or just ignore them? What do they do with Isaiah? He pulls no punches. The old prophet walked naked in public to make a point. He used worn-out whores and used menstrual rags as metaphors.

So much for propriety.

One of the things I've always loved about God's Message is the way it presents Truth in all sorts of powerful ways. When you read it for yourself, you find that God doesn't play it safe. He doesn't pander to anyone. Sinner and saint alike will find it inspiring, convicting, and regularly hard to swallow. Truth, communicated through intense metaphors, will offend all sorts of good religious people. It's akin to what I've come to learn and love about art, literature, music, and theatre:

If you communicate what's true, you're always going to offend somebody.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and libbyrosof